Differences in Language Usage between American and Chinese

Introduction

Various factors such as education, religion, social standing, and personality, experience, affection, home affection and belief structure among other innumerable factors affect human culture. For example, there exist differences in approach when it comes to considering politeness and appropriateness in behaviours both off and on the job (Chen, 84). In some nations, cultures and societies “yes” implies, “I hear you”, while in others it means, “I agree”, which is less than the former. Other examples of cultural difference include politeness measured in terms of etiquette or courtesy, extent of forbearance when around a foreign speaker, length of conversations and greetings prior to engaging in business and the dressing. Samovar, Porter and McDaniel (56) points out that Mexicans must greet other upon arriving, for example, when they walk into a group of people eating they would always say provecho. Chilean women always greet other women and kiss men on the cheek (Samovar, Porter and McDaniel, 78). All these expressions can be perceived differently by other societies, which are not familiar with them. This is because of the cultural differences in terms of forms of expression. Culture and language go hand in hand, and this can be seen in American and Chinese communities. The American language depicts a confrontational culture, whereas the Chinese through their language depict humility as an important virtue. With regard to this, study evaluates the differences in language usage between American and Chinese culture, and their effects on relationships.

According to Chu (100), Chinese conceal their feelings instead of speaking them out, unlike Americans who openly air their feelings. The Chinese reserve their opinions and emotions as revealed from their character of rarely saying “I love you” even to their own parents. They would do something to show their love rather than punishing themselves trying to utter the words. In America, saying, “I love you” to parents is extremely common and many circumstances before thanking a parent one would say these words (Samovar, Porter and McDaniel, 67). Americans view the feelings created by saying the words have a greater impact than the act of showing love to parents or relatives. In addition, the Chinese tends to listen rather than speaking. In a class comprising of Chinese and American Students, majority of the actively participating are the American students.

The forms of addressing in china and America are explicitly different (Chen, 84). The Chinese address themselves by putting their family names before own given names. More intriguingly, they add titles such as “Sir” or “Lady” after the family name to show politeness. On the other hand, the Americans put their family names after their own given first names and surnames. American style of addressing entails putting the titles such as Mr., Mrs., Miss, Dr., or Prof before their own given names. Knowing these addressing variations between American and Chinese is significant in averting related misunderstanding (Samovar, Porter and McDaniel, 78).

The Chinese and Americans have different forms of commencing pleasantries (Chen, 83). For example, the Chinese occasionally asks questions such as “Where are you going?” or “Have you eaten?” when they accidentally meet friends or relatives before engaging on other conversations. However, practicing this in America is a total misunderstanding since it will be considered as an invitation. The Americans commence their pleasantries occasionally by saying asking whether the day is well with the friend or relative they meet (Samovar, Porter and McDaniel, 75). This is mostly to assess the mood of their audience or partner in the conversation. Frequently asking the question, “Is it a beautiful day?” starts conversations even when it is raining.  However, this should imply to the Chinese that Americans could predict the weather.

Time conceptions in Chinese and Americans are different (Chu, 111). The American way of life is quite fast; hence, they regard time to be extremely a precious commodity. This infers that when they accept invitations, they try not to be late. In addition, they rarely go early to the hosts’ premises since this might be perceived as impoliteness and might disrupt preparations by the hosts. On the contrary, the Chinese show politeness and thanks by going to the hosts’ premises early. Additionally, going early to invitations is meant to help the host prepare meals before having time together (Samovar, Porter and McDaniel, 40). This difference can be detrimental to Chinese-American relationships since an American would consider the Chinese arrival as impoliteness.  Similarly, the Chinese would consider the timely arrival of Americans as being rude and of less concern.

Smile interpretation in the United States differs from China (Samovar, Porter and McDaniel, 39). Chinese regard smiling to mean happy and a way of feeling sorry mistake committed. This might be extremely difficult to Americans to believe that smiling to the Chinese does not always infer happiness, which is a common interpretation. However, to the Chinese is desirable to apologize using a smile that shows humbleness and embarrassment. The Chinese staunchly believe that a smile can kill anger, which might explain why they smile to apologize. An American can interpret the Chinese smile as a rude way for apologizing, which can affect negatively on relationships (Chen, 84).

Chinese and Americans have divergent perspectives concerning girls and women (Chu, 112). The Chinese consider girls as people of the female gender who are young and single. Women are adult female who are married, and it is extremely insulting to interchange the titles. For example, calling the young females “women” does not conform to their social norms. The American perspective does not totally limit a woman to marriage. A grown up girl who is single can be called a woman in America. The term girl in America can be regarded as derogatory in professional or formal contexts. As much as this term seems to disparage when applied to Americans, it might suitable in the Chinese formal contexts comprising of unmarried females (Chen, 45).

The Chinese and American cultures welcome any compliment, but the perception differs depending on the compliment (Chen, 84). Compliments should not have some form of surprise or concealed criticism, and is not particularly intimate for the relationship to be welcomed in many cultures. Compliments in one country such as America are not those in another country such as China. For example, compliments regarding the beauty of a woman. Many Chinese women would feel intensely shy when told they look beautiful. The shyness might grow to the extent of feeling embarrassed if it was on public context. On the contrary, American women feel grateful when complimented and would instead say, “Thank you.”

Chu (84) affirms that the Chinese cultural values emphasize on emotional moderation than their American counterpart. This is because they are exceedingly collectivist or group oriented. In many collectivist societies or nations, emotions tend to regulate interpersonal relations as compared to an individualistic society or country such as America (Chu, 112). The Chinese demonstrates emotional control more in social circumstances than in non-social ones. The emotional moderation is attributed to their value for lifelong and highly intimate relationships with other people at work or in life. The high priority placed on maintaining pleasant relationships over achieving individual goals also accounts for the emotional moderation at the work place contexts. On the other hand, Americans do not show emotional moderation; they tend to concentrate on achieving individual goals, and focusing less on impacts of relationship (Chen, 83).

The cultural differences in both Americans and the Chinese tend to create problems when drawing inferences about what the other person means (Samovar, Porter and McDaniel, 56). This can be seriously detrimental to an intimate relationship involving partners from both cultural communities.  In metropolitan cities such as New York, Vancouver, Shanghai and Paris, stereotyping and intercultural communication might occur in every unique context inclusive of marriages and other forms of relationship. Making wrong inferences by partners might be perceived as impoliteness or ignorance and being unconcerned (Chu, 84). An example is the Chinese smiling as a form of apologizing, which might be interpreted as rudeness by an American counterpart.

Business relations in china seem to be substituted by intense socialization (Samovar, Porter and McDaniel, 67). Some research asserts that Americans doing business in China had to adapt to the much socialization of the Chinese community. Business tends to become secondary socialization rate grows. In china, delays in business contracts are perfectly acceptable provided social time is assigned for. In America, business relations are primary, and associates are detached. Despite allocating social time, business is more significant to the extent of foregoing socializing.

In conclusion, language and culture go hand in hand, and this can be seen in American and Chinese communities. Chinese conceal their feelings instead of speaking out, unlike Americans who openly air their feelings in contrary to Americans who openly express their feelings. The forms of addressing in china and America are explicitly different. The Chinese address themselves by putting their family names before own given names, whereas Americans put family names after their own names. The Chinese and Americans have different forms of commencing conversations. Chinese and Americans have divergent perspectives concerning girls and women. The cultural differences affect relationships in various ways. The cultural differences in both Americans and the Chinese tend to create problems when drawing inferences about what the other person means.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works cited

Chen, Yu. “Cultural differences in Chinese and American address forms.” Asian Culture and History (2010): 82-85.

Chu, M. “Chinese cultural taboos that affect their language and behaviour choice.” Asian Culture and History (2009): 99-110.

Samovar, Larry, Richard Porter and Edwin McDaniel. Communication Between Cultures. Belmont, CA : Cengage Learning, 2009.